A passenger admitted he had ‘some things that I shouldn’t have’ before being exposed as a drug mule.
Dad-of-three Arshad Hussain had flown out to Thailand and tried to smuggle cannabis into the UK when he returned. But when he was stopped by Border Force officers at Manchester Airport, he admitted: “I’ve got some things that I shouldn’t have.”
Hussain, 50, had two suitcases stuffed with vacuum sealed packages containing about 40 kilos of the class B drug. He had flown from Bangkok via Dubai and arrived back home on July 31.
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Prosecutors said that Hussain had appeared to have enjoyed a ‘four day free holiday’ in the Far East, and was also being offered £2,000 if he successfully completed the smuggling bid. Other than telling officers he was from Bradford, he refused to answer questions during an interview with police. Defending, Ian Metcalfe said Hussain became involved after falling into debt.
He said: “The defendant, in the summer of last year, lost his job as a driver. Because of family debts, and not drug debts, that accrued, he was being pressured and proved susceptible to this misadventure.”
He said that Hussain never received the promised £2,000. Hussain, a married father-of-three, had spent the past three months in prison on remand following his capture.
Mr Metcalfe appealed for leniency in Hussain’s case, adding that he had been offered more driving work. But Judge Hilary Manley imposed a 16 month sentence after ruling that the case was too serious for anything other than a prison sentence. “Only immediate custody can be appropriate,” she said.
“There must be an element of deterrence in cases such as this. You agreed, for the payment of £2,000, to be flown to Thailand and back to the UK, bringing with you on your return suitcases which contained 40 kilos of cannabis.”
Hussain, of Coniston Grove, Bradford, pleaded guilty to one count of being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class B drug.
